Corrie boss reveals genius hack to keep Jennie McAlpine on screen during her maternity leave
SOAP fans were apprehensive when they found out Fiz Stape would be temporarily leaving the cobbles.
However, Coronation Street bosses found the perfect hack to keep her included in all the upcoming drama.
ITV viewers won’t have the chance to miss soap icon Jennie McAlpine.
The actress has been playing Underworld machinist Fiz since April, 2001.
Fans of the Manchester-based drama were thus shocked to learn she’d be leaving Weatherfield in 2023.
Jennie McAlpine revealed she was expecting her third child in early January, meaning she will have to go through a lengthy maternity leave.
But unlike her co-star Julia Goulding, who left the cobbles as her character Shona Platt headed to London on-screen, Jennie won’t completely vanish.
Speaking on Loose Women on Wednesday (February 15, 2023), Corrie boss Iain MacLeod revealed how Fiz will be kept around throughout Jennie’s absence behind the screens.
“We’ve pre-recorded some little bits with Jennie that we’re going to play in as video calls so while she’s away we can still see her talking to Tyrone”, Iain explained.
He added: “We’re trying to use all the tricks we can to cover it.”
Some fans of the long-running program were scared Jennie’s maternity leave would mean troubled times ahead for Fiz and her husband Tyrone Dobbs (played by Alan Halsall).
The couple tied the knot in emotional scenes aired during the festive period.
Their wedding marked the end of years during which the on-off couple spent playing a cat and mouse game.
Fiz and Tyrone jumped through many hurdles since they first became romantically involved in the noughties and viewers just wanted to see them FINALLY together.
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While Iain MacLeod said that Fiz would “geographically […] have to” leave Tyrone, he made it clear bosses were determined to keep the couple (and viewers) happy.
“What we did not want to do is split them up”, he said before adding that Fiz and Tyrone will be kept apart but “as friends.”
“Fiz will be leaving to cover Jennie’s maternity leave but it will not be acrimonious, they’ll part as friends, they’ll kind of do the long-distance thing.”
In the meantime, Fiz remains in the cobbles as a precise date for her upcoming exit is yet to be revealed.
Coronation Street airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8pm on ITV.